The Vitamin Scare: Should You Be Worried?

A new warning about multivitamins sounds both scary and annoying -- some of them have high levels of lead, and others don't contain the promised amounts of ingredients

Jan 24, 2007

MensHealth.com went to the source of the research, ConsumerLab.com, to get some answers. ConsumerLab.com is an independent company that evaluates health and nutrition products, and is a reliable friend of MensHealth.com -- we turned to them when we put together our extremely popular Supplement Finder.

ConsumerLab.com tested 21 multivitamins for adults and children and found that more than half had problems -- either too much lead or not enough of the ingredients as promised. Only 10 of 21 lived up to their claims and met quality standards, the firm said.

If you're concerned, it's worth subscribing to their service for the full report. Here's a teaser: "Healthy Moments Mint Cream Flavor Vitamin Strips" had no Vitamin A and "Eniva VIBE" only had half of the Vitamin A it promised. The lead-laden worst offender isn't one we guys have to worry about -- though maybe your wife or girlfriend should. It's called "The Vitamin Shoppe Multivitamins Especially for Women."

None of the flaws are very dangerous on their own, but they do show how inconsistent manufacturing can be. Bottom line: Buy from big, established names, and see your doctor about any nutritional deficiencies you may have. And check out our Supplement Finder for the latest information. MensHealth.com talked with the president of ConsumerLab.com, Tod Cooperman, M.D., about the report.

What can you tell men who are a little freaked out by these findings?

Dr. Cooperman: If you're not eating a well-balanced diet, a multivitamin can be helpful -- but you need to be aware that a lot of products have defects. Some may not be delivering all of what they promise and some may be giving you things you don't want, particularly -- you know, lead. This is not the first time we've found lead in a multi-vitamin. It happened three years ago. We often find lead in herbal supplements.

How significant was the lead in the multivitamins that you tested?

Dr. Cooperman: In the worse case, with this woman's product, the 15 micrograms of lead is a lot. It's five times the amount of lead that you're exposed to from all your food and drink in a typical day. For a kid's vitamin it would be a much more serious situation because kids can tolerate up to about 6 micrograms a day. An adult fortunately can tolerate probably 60 or 70 micrograms per day. So it's unlikely it would cause, in itself, any acute toxicity. However, if you're exposed to other sources of lead it is a significant contribution to your lead exposure.

And probably the biggest concern is that lead builds up in your body. It builds up in your bones -- you store it. If you have adult osteoporosis later on in life, that lead comes back out again. There's increasing evidence that lead is just not good for the body. It can contribute to hypertension and many other things. This is a highly avoidable source of contamination.

You absolutely don't want to share any of these with your kids. People do share vitamins -- a mother or father might actually take a kids' vitamin instead of their own vitamin. They figure it's fine, but with the kids' vitamin what we've found is excessive amounts of Vitamin A -- you don't want a mother with kids who's pregnant taking that. They're not supposed to exceed 5000 IUs of Vitamin A a day, for the kids here taking three vitamins a day, they're already exceeding that.

Okay, that's women and children. What should men worry about?

Dr. Cooperman: We did find in a men's and a senior's product the fact that the product wouldn't break apart fast enough. Tablets and caplets, according to the USP guidelines, are supposed to break apart within 30 minutes in a stomach-like condition. You can actually do that test at home by putting your vitamin -- as long as it's a tablet or caplet, not a time-release -- in warm vinegar, about body temperature, and stirring it for 30 minutes. You should see it break apart. If you don't there's a possibility that the same thing is happening in your body and it's not releasing all of its ingredients.

Doesn't the government watch for these shortcomings and hazards?

Dr. Cooperman: The FDA is responsible for regulating supplements, which includes vitamins and herbs. The regulations are not that strict and they're not well enforced. Some companies actually prod the FDA to do more on enforcement because it allows a lot of bad players to ruin it. These bad companies kind of ruin it for everybody. The FDA has promised for 10 years to issue good manufacturing practices but has yet to do so. There's no other health care product that's sold in this country for which there aren't established manufacturing practices.

Even in terms of setting limits on contaminants in these products, we have to look toward the state of California for a limit on lead. The FDA has not set a limit for supplements. In terms of enforcement, the FDA basically said that their products contain 100 percent of what it claims, but it is not testing products unless there has been a report of a serious toxicity. Our head of research actually had been doing that kind of work at the FDA for 9 years before we started ConsumerLab and I assure you that they don't do any routine testing at the FDA and they don't inspect manufacturing facilities. They do not require that a company even register a product with the government. Really, anyone could put a product on the market. It's a buyer-beware situation.

What's a consumer to do?

Dr. Cooperman: If you eat a very well balanced diet you're probably okay. If you're not, you should know what you need nutritionally -- it may not be all that much, you don't have to mega-dose yourself. I think there's a real tendency, probably even more among men, to think that "more is better" in terms of multi-vitamins. But you can get too much vitamin A, magnesium, vitamin C, and niacin. There are lots of vitamins where the Institute of Medicine, which is part of the National Academies, has established tolerable intake levels and they vary depending on your gender and your age.

Should men skip the multivitamin and just take certain supplements?

Dr. Cooperman: It's worthwhile to really look at the different nutrients in your diet and see where you think you might be deficient. There aren't that many cases of real serious vitamin or metal deficiency in adult men in America. You know iron is not something that adult men need much of. Calcium is, but you'll actually need a separate supplement or to get it from dairy or other sources, because you need over a gram a day, and you can't fit that into a multi-vitamin.

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